Dance Music From Three Countries

In our next concert, we present an exciting program of dance music from Italy, Germany, and the United States.

The concert begins with infectious music by the Italian film composer Nino Rota, with a suite of dances from his score to the 1963 film The Leopard, then moves to the folk-based music of Saturday Night Waltz from American composer Aaron Copland’s music for the ballet Rodeo.

Staying with Copland, the KSO welcomes Guest Artist and Kamloops native, Baritone Scott Brooks to the stage, to perform Old American Songs.

Scott’s earliest foray onto the operatic stage took place in Kamloops’ own Sagebrush Theatre, in the KSO production of the musical Oliver! Since then, Scott has returned to sing with the KSO twice, in Beethoven’s Symphony #9, and Mozart’s Coronation Mass. He studied in the opera program at UBC, where he finished as one of the ensemble’s leading soloists. Following that was a move to St Andrews, in Scotland, to take a Ph.D. in English literature. During this time Scott continued to perform, in Scotland, Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Canada. Currently, Scott resides in Montreal, and is a member of Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique artist-in-residence program.

Concluding the concert is Beethoven’s ever-popular Symphony #7, often hailed as one of the most perfect symphonies ever written, and described by Richard Wagner as “the apotheosis of the dance.”*